Yavapai County Attorney Sheila Polk today concluded that Horne and Kathleen Winn, who ran an IE campaign that spent on his behalf in 2010, illegally coordinated the expenditures, making them in-kind contributions and not independent expenditures.

Yesterday’s Court of Appeals order blocking the implementation of the new campaign finance limits law led to widespread confusion among candidates, campaign operatives and election attorneys as to how everyone is supposed to proceed.

Following oral arguments this afternoon, the Court of Appeals has accepted jurisdiction of the appeal of the trial court’s ruling in Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission v. Bennett and has blocked the law from being implemented until it issues a ruling. It is unclear when that ruling will come.

The Ninth Floor is noncommittal about whether Brewer will continue using state funds to keep Grand Canyon National Park open if the federal shutdown doesn’t end before Arizona’s seven-day agreement with the National Park Service expires.

A legislative source told our reporter today that one of the sticking points in Arizona’s efforts to open the Grand Canyon is whether the state will get reimbursed by the feds for the roughly $30,000 per day it would spend on a partial reopening.

Horne today issued an opinion that says Bennett can implement a dual-registration voting system in which voters who registered using the federal voter registration forms without proving they are US citizens will be limited to participating only in federal elections, and he told our reporter he thinks the majority of those voters aren’t US citizens.